New Jerseyan PJ Heinz is part of extended Doobie Brothers family

Bridget BellaviaPJ Heinz performs with his band Boothill Express at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, in September 2010,

Doobie Brothers music is in PJ Heinz’s blood. When he was growing up, his father played in a Jersey club band, Fat Chance, that covered Doobie Brothers hits. When they were in the car together, Heinz says, the eight-track version of the Doobies’ greatest-hits album always seemed to be playing.

“I’ve always been heavily influenced by those guys,” says Heinz, who now plays Doobie Brothers songs himself in a Shore-based cover group, Boothill Express. “I was self-taught, so a lot of what I learned was by listening to their records.”

Heinz, 38, of South Brunswick, is different from other Doobie Brothers fans in that he occasionally joins the band onstage — he’s planning to do so again when the group performs at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel on Sunday — and has a songwriting credit on their 2010 album, “World Gone Crazy.” He co-wrote the tender ballad “Far From Home” with Doobie Brothers co-frontman Patrick Simmons and the band’s producer, Ted Templeman.

Heinz first met Simmons and other band members in the mid-’90s, at a meet-and-greet in Atlantic City. He came with copies of a demo featuring songs he had written, and was hoping to give them to band members.

“I just walked up to Patrick Simmons and started talking to him,” says Heinz. “We immediately struck up a really great relationship, and that’s when I gave him the first CD. About six months later, he sent me a letter saying how much he enjoyed it, and he encouraged me to keep writing.”

This pattern continued for years, with Heinz attending the band’s Jersey shows and offering copies of his latest songs.

“He would show up and chat with us and stuff from time to time,” says Simmons, 62. “I always thought, gee, he has some talent, and I really want to encourage him, because he really seems to love music. But I never had an idea of exactly how I could help him with his career, other than just to be encouraging.”

From left, drummer Michael Hossack, guitarist-violinist John McFee and singer-guitarists Patrick Simmons and Tom Johnston are at the core of the Doobie Brothers' current nine-piece lineup. Simmons and Johnston are original members, and Hossack and McFee are longtime members.

That changed about two years ago, when Heinz gave Simmons a CD with the music for “Far From Home.” The song didn’t have any words, or even a title — Heinz liked the music but couldn’t come up with words for it.

“There wasn’t really a song formed,” says Simmons. “It was more a bunch of parts, and it kind of went from one part to the next, but all kind of in the same groove.”

The band had just started putting material together for what would become “World Gone Crazy,” “and I thought this was something that maybe I could develop,” says Simmons. “He and I talked backed and forth, and I started picking bits and pieces out of the demo that he gave me and reworking them. I think I speeded it up slightly. I didn’t use all the (chord) changes: I used a few of the changes that really connected for me, and then I think I came up with one of my own.

“It was a little convoluted, but it eventually wound up being the song ‘Far From Home.’â”

Over the years, the friendship between Heinz and various Doobie Brothers members has deepened. At shows, he will occasionally sit in on the encores, singing and playing guitar on classics such as “Long Train Runnin’,” “China Grove” and “Listen to the Music.”

“They’ve really become like family to me,” says Heinz. “We go out together, we talk regularly, we e-mail. They’re always very hospitable: Every time I’m at one of their shows they treat me like royalty.”

Like many other rock hit-makers of their generation, the Doobies make most of their money on the road. Especially during the summer, they always seem to be out there. They headline theaters on their own, but are often teamed with other groups at the larger amphitheaters (they’re co-billed with Lynyrd Skynyrd in Holmdel).

“World Gone Crazy” is the first Doobie Brothers album since 2000. (In their 1970s heyday, the band released an album once a year or so, but now the albums are spaced much further apart.) It’s a lively, well-crafted and musically eclectic set, featuring guest appearances by Willie Nelson and former Doobie Brothers member Michael McDonald.

It’s the band’s first album since “Cycles,” in 1989, to reach the Top 40. “Far From Home” peaked as a single at No. 24 on Billboard’s magazine adult-contemporary chart.

Simmons’ pride in the album is obvious.

“When we sit down to do a Doobie Brothers album, we want it to be something special — something that will stand up there with the rest of our records,” he says. “We want to feel that we’re not just putting something out there for the public, for no reason. So these days, we wait until we’re ready.”